Unaware of shelter, homeless in Sangrur spend nights in the open

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Sangrur, December 30

In Sangrur city, despite spending lakhs on the construction of a night shelter, poor people are compelled to sleep on roads as majority are unaware about the location of night shelter, which is more than 2 km away from the bus stand and more than 1 km away from the railway station.

The night shelter of city is located at the backside of the fire brigade office on the Uppli village road and majority do not know how to reach it.

“I do not know the location of the shelter. Though officers have told me that I should use the free facility of Nagar Council (NC), and I tried to find it twice, but could not. When I asked a sweeper, he told me that it’s on the Uppli village road, but I could not find it,” said an elderly homeless perosn.

Some other homeless, who are spending nights either in bus stand or at other locations, also shared the similar views. When told that night shelter was constructed many years back with all facilities for them by NC, majority of them claimed to never have used the facility.

“We have been spending nights in this biting cold here without even proper blankets. Had we been aware about the location, we would have been using the facility. Why would we not use it if the government is offering us free shelter? The main problem is that its location is unknown to majority of the homeless of the city,” said another homeless person.

Reportedly, only five-six persons are availing the facility of the NC.

“When it was constructed around ten years back, the authorities had selected an inappropriate location. We have arrangements for 50 persons there, but only few are using it as it is difficult to find it. We are trying to publicise it among the homeless,” said Balkishan, Executive Officer of the Sangrur NC.